The new year calls to us to save the many children
in our nation's schoolswho will be
diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)and
prescribed mind-altering drugs. This evil grows exponentially and, withit, the tragedies whose stories are rising to the
surface of public notice.

This pseudo-psychological racket is big business.
Sales of pharmaceuticals totreat ADHD
snowballed to $758 million in the year 2000, and show no signs ofslowing down. However, more and more parents
are growing skeptical of thediagnoses and
subsequent coercive drugging of their children. Spurred bytragedy,
some are fighting back.

Lawrence Smith of Michigan and Vicky Dunkle of
Pennsylvania both tragicallylost their
children to psychiatric drugs prescribed to treat their ADHD. Mr.Smith's 14-year-old son, Matthew died of a heart
attack he had whileskateboarding. The
coroner determined his death was caused by the long-termuse
of a stimulant that had been forcibly prescribed to him through hisschool. Early last year, Mrs. Dunkle's daughter,
Shaina, died in her mother'sarms after
convulsing in her doctor's office. She was just 10 years old.

Lawrence and Vicky, bonded by common tragedy, are
fighting back. They aredetermined to
expose the fraud surrounding ADHD and the forced drugging ofnormal
children. The problems started for both parents when they wereapproached
by school social workers and psychologists. They were told thattheir children were "too active,"
"easily distracted," and that they "talkedout
of turn." Lawrence and Vicky shrugged off these diagnoses as simplynormal traits of energetic youngsters.

Then came the iron fist of government.

Smith was told: "if we didn't consider
drugging our son after the schoolhad
diagnosed him with ADHD that we could be charged for neglecting hiseducational and emotional needs. If we hadn't been
pressured by the schoolsystem, Matthew
would still be alive today." Mrs. Dunkle agrees. "If I
hadfollowed my heart instead of the advice
of 'professionals' that thought theyknew my
daughter better than I did, my precious Shaina would be alive now."

What is going on here? Since when did
government schools get in the businessof
forcing mind-altering drugs on children against their parent's will?

In 1965, the passage of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA),changed
education forever as the seeds for today's massive restructuring-awayfrom academics and toward behavior
modification-began. It was psychology'scrowning
moment. The ESEA allocated massive federal funds and opened schooldoors to a flood of psychiatrists, psychologists,
social workers and thepsychiatric programs
and testing needed to validate them. The number ofeducational
psychologists in the U.S. increased from 455 in 1969 to 16,146 by1992. As of 1994, child psychologists,
psychiatrists, counselors and specialeducators
in and around U.S. public schools nearly outnumber teachers.

In 1991, eligibility rules for federal education
grants were changed toprovide schools with
$400 in annual grant money for each child diagnosed withADHD.
That same year the Department of Education formally recognized ADHD asa handicap and directed all state education
officers to establish proceduresto screen
and identify ADHD children and provide them with special educationand psychological services. As a result, the
number of ADHD cases soaredagain.

Today more than 7,000,000 children have been
labeled and registered aspermanent patients
of the school system. Ten to twelve percent of all boysbetween
the ages of 6 and 14 in the United States have been diagnosed ashaving
ADHD. One in every 30 Americans between the ages of 5 and 19 years oldhas a prescription to Ritalin. Psychologists
have never had it so good. Thefederal
trough has been very good for their industry.

With more than half of those 7,000,000 children
also prescribed Ritalin, thestock-market
value of its manufacturer, the Swiss pharmaceutical companyNovartis,
has also soared. Now that company and others are working tointroduce a host of new drugs into the classroom,
including Prozac and Luvox,which has just
been approved by the Food and Drug Administration forpediatric
use.

The industry is looking to even greater growth as
the pill brigade istargeting pre-school
toddlers. The use of psychotropic drugs, likeanti-depressants
and stimulants, in two to four year olds more than doubledbetween
1991 and 1995. The federal trough has been very good to thepharmaceutical
industry as well.

As this sickening practice goes unchecked and
unquestioned more children arebeing drugged
into a mind-numbing stupor, deteriorating under the long-termeffects
of their prescriptions. In the worst cases, children are dying.

Tom DeWeese is publisher/editor of The
DeWeese Report and president of theAmerican
Policy Center, a grassroots, activist think tank headquartered inWarrenton, VA. The Center maintains an
Internet site atwww.americanpolicy.org.